Ftrain, by Paul Ford

Lessons learned: Ember to React

Aaron Ortbals is a Senior Engineer at Postlight who recently wrote a very interesting essay about learning React.

React is a toolkit/framework that makes it easier to build web applications (i.e. software that runs in browsers). Like most senior web developers, Aaron wasn’t starting from scratch—he was in fact already an expert in another, similar framework called Ember.js. He’d invested time in learning Ember, and felt like part of the Ember community. And what he felt while learning React was…guilt.

It seems crazy that at times I felt guilty for exploring something else. I’ve developed a bond with the Ember community. I attended the first two EmberConfs, which were the best conferences I’ve ever been to. There are so many good people involved with the project. But you have to tell yourself that exploration is good. You don’t have to choose one tool. It’s better to juggle more than one framework in the Javascript world.

If you don’t program, it can be hard to understand that there are cultural rules and norms around different programming languages and different frameworks. Why would someone feel guilty for switching from one program to another?

When you use software you pick up the goals and aspirations of everyone who worked on it, and you pick up their world-view, too. When you program that goes double. Trying out other systems can make you feel like you’re sneaking out the back door. But you have to keep learning.

Aaron captures this complexity, and discusses the technical factors of his decisions, too. Read his post! And as always, we welcome feedback.

Below the fold

Today’s links:

• Today’s variety of religious experience: Ravidassia.
• Today’s freely available programming book: Elementary Algorithms — Larry LIU Xinyu.
• Today’s public data set: Puerto Rico Government.
• Today’s North Korean slogan: “Build modern mushroom production bases like the Pyongyang City Mushroom Farm across the country!”
• Today’s Creative Commons media link: Creativity103 — Library of free abstract backgrounds, textures and design ideas.
• Today’s JavaScript library: Cesium — Open Source WebGL virtual globe and map engine.
• Today’s React component: react-inlinesvg — An SVG loader component for React.